KINGFIELD – Selectmen will meet Monday to consider a petition asking for a town meeting to vote on a moratorium on big new industrial projects.
The petition was submitted to the town office more than a week ago by Citizens for Our Right to Vote.
A special Planning Board meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. after the selectmen’s meeting. Planning Board Chairman David Guernsey called the meeting late Thursday afternoon, anticipating that selectmen will vote to hold a special town meeting in mid-May, possibly on May 18.
“The selectmen will vote on what action to take at their regular meeting, April 3. I anticipate they will call a special town meeting to vote on the petition on May 18. State law requires that the Planning Board hold a public hearing on the moratorium ordinance 10 days prior to the meeting,” Guernsey explained in a Thursday night e-mail to his board.
The Kingfield Water District, which usually meets in Webster Hall at 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday of every month, changed the time of its meeting to “immediately following the selectmen’s meeting” as well.
First Selectman John Dill, who was on vacation when the petition was submitted, said Thursday that selectmen will “probably accept the petition from the town registered voters” Monday night. Once the signatures are validated and the petition is accepted, which Dill thinks is probable, the board may set a date for a special town meeting to vote on whether or not to put a moratorium in place.
The proposed moratorium would prohibit the Planning Board from reviewing any applications for “big” industrial-type projects like building a bottling plant.
A Kingfield group calling itself Citizens for Our Right to Vote started collecting signatures for the petition a few days after Poland Spring Water Co. met with the Planning Board for the first time to officially discuss the preliminary details of a permit application to build a bottling plant in town.
The proposed facility is expected to cost about $100 million and create between 30 and 130 new jobs, but it will also cause an increase in truck traffic through the town.
Some members of the Kingfield group oppose the proposed plant, and others, including group representative Susan Mason, say their primary reason for holding a moratorium would be to strengthen the town’s zoning ordinance.
Kingfield has no land zoned for industrial development. The most recent town comprehensive plan called for rezoning to include industrial areas.
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